The Expert Words of Black Artists:

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”
- Langston Hughes

“The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.”

- James Baldwin

"Nobody's as powerful as we make them out to be."

-Alice Walker

“Create dangerously...Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.”

- Edwidge Danticat

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

- Maya Angelou

“Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.”

-Toni Morrison

“You weren't going to the theater to change the world, but you had a chance to affect the world, the thinking and the feelings of the world.”

- James Earl Jones

"Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations."
- Dr. Mae Jemison, first African-American female astronaut

"Just don't give up what you're trying to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

- Ella Fitzgerald

“Have a vision. Be demanding.”
- Colin Powell

“Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.”

- Duke Ellington

“Whatever good you have to bring into the world will be beneficial and it will be more than enough.”
- Bethanee Epifani J. Bryant

"We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort."
- Jesse Owens, world record-setting Olympic athlete

“All truly great art is propaganda.”

- Ann Petry

“Reinvent yourself over and over and over and over and over until you find home. There is no timeline for the soul.”
- Malebo Sephodi

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear."

- Rosa Parks

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
- Frederick Douglass

​When I look at you
 

I see a knight

Standing firm in your radiant and shining armor

Ready for life's war

Each piece placed to protect you from a potentially fatal blow

Rigid you stand

With presence that warns off the worthiest of foes
 

But when I take off your helmet

I see a woman who's beauty knocks everyone to their knees

Making it hard to breathe

A smile that uplifts the deepest rooted doubts

Leaving only the strongest of beliefs

Beauty that instils the strength of ten armies

And when laughter pours out of you

We give in and enter the state of vulnerable trust

So can we leave that at the door?

As we make our way across the room
 

When I take off your breastplate

I see the heart of a woman

With the compassion to lift us up from the deepest of sadness

And the blood that courses through your veins

So pure it gives life to those who are merely around it

I see the heart of a woman with a radiant light so bright

It shines

Exposing all the corners where darkness used to reside

And a heart that pours out love so deep

It sweeps you off your feet
 

So can we leave that at the door?

Lean it against the wall as we make our way across the room
 

When I take off each piece protecting your extremities
 

I see the arms of a woman

Arms with the strength to lift giants out of their trap

And crush anyone who challenges your beliefs

Yet I see the arms and hands of a woman gentle enough to soothe an aching heart

Willing to drop everything at a moments notice

And put them to good work for those in need

I see the legs and feet of a woman

Firmly placed to the ground

A base so sturdy it welcomes the fiercest storm

Toes like roots

Running deeply underground

Holding you firm

Yet willing to uproot

And move with all the weight upon your shoulders

Should it service a

Greater

Selfless

Good
 

So can we leave that at the door?

Just throw everything in a pile over by your helmet
 

Now

Let me step back

To see you for the true person I know you to be

The one I know off the battle field

That taught me the meaning of

Strength

Beauty

Compassion

Vulnerability

Laughter

Forgiveness

Grace

Meanings learned as a direct result

Of your inherent and good nature.

... But should you ever,

Have to take up your plates of armor

...Then please take

My shield

My sword

My bow...

Because you've taught me,
 

That I don't need these with you anymore...

​

By Casey Noack

Kyiv

How can the stars be so bright and constant

when the earth is covered by smoke and uncertainty?

One side of the world wakes to sirens and soldiers

while the other sleeps under a cold, silent sky.

But the bombs fall, as they always have.

As they always will.

We are all connected, sharing the same sphere.

There is no escaping it, no matter the distance from the stars.

By Michael McPhie

Blue Tee.